To Love and Protect (4 page)

Justin remained stoic as Gertrude threw the words he had thought just a few minutes ago back in his face.
 
“Did any of the servants see where she went?”

“No,” she shook her head, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
 
“Justin, I can’t lose both her and William.
 
You understand that, don’t you?”

Justin looked carefully at his godmother.
 
Stark terror filled her eyes, and her hands trembled where they clutched his overcoat.
 
“You truly think that something has happened to your brother?”

“William is not the kind to just disappear.
 
Like Clarissa,” Gertie explained, “I have been suspicious of Lorraine from the beginning.
 
Perhaps I am imagining things, I don’t know.
 
But something isn’t right.
 
Clarissa and her father are close.
 
Her mother died when she was only a child.
 
It has been just the two of them forever.
 
I know I’m setting it up to sound like she is jealous, but she isn’t that type of person.
 
She would not deny her father true happiness.
 
No, it is more than that,” she shook her head sadly.

“You have to tell me everything if I’m to find them both.”

“Franklin, Lorraine’s brother, has been making unwanted overtures towards Clarissa.”

“How long has this been going on?”

“Since she and the Duke of Hawkescliffe were courting.
 
Then, with Hawkescliffe’s recent marriage, it became worse.
 
She has spent almost every night with me since William left town.
 
Oh, she thinks I do not know why.
 
She thinks she is protecting me.
 
What that girl needs is someone to love and protect her.
 
A strong man, who…”

“Did she tell her father about Franklin’s advances?” Justin cut his godmother off before she could finish her thought.

“I don’t believe so.
 
She has lost her self-confidence where it comes to her father since his marriage.
 
Lorraine has twisted facts so that it looks poorly on Clarissa.
 
William has become harsh with her, which he never was in the past.
 
In fact, Clarissa feels like he blames her for Hawkescliffe’s defection.”

“All because of Lorraine?”

“She’s beautiful and manipulative.”

“Would she be manipulative enough to talk Hamilton into changing his will?”

“Possibly.”

“If that is so, I fear not only is he in danger, but so is Clarissa.”

“Oh, dear,” Gertrude crumpled into a chair.
 
“Justin, she’s like the daughter I never had.
 
I can’t lose her,” tears gathered in her eyes, and her voice wavered.

“Gertie, I will do my best to find both of them and take care of them,” he said as he knelt in front of her.
 
“When I find them, I may have to take them somewhere safe where I know I can protect them.”

“Scotland.”

“Aye.”

“Should I come with you?”

“It would be faster if you didn’t.” He saw the crestfallen look enter his godmother’s face.
 
She wanted to make sure her little one would be fine, and the not knowing would kill her in the interim.
 
“It would look suspicious if we all left town.”

“I understand,” she said on a sob.

“Pack a light bag,” he said, sighing.
 

“I’ll only be a few minutes,” the woman said as she bounded out of the room.

“What have I gotten myself into?” Justin asked the empty room.

***

Clarissa pulled her plain, brown bonnet low to cover her eyes.
 
She bumped into several people, murmured quick apologies and kept moving.
 
Papa’s intent had been to attend him meeting in Liverpool.
 
Her only thought was to find her father in the quickest manner possible.
 
She had to get to him before something horrible happened.

She felt awful for sneaking out of Aunt Gertie’s house, but she had to do something, and she had a feeling that Southerby would insist she remain at home.
 
For some reason unknown to her, men underestimated her strength.
 
The
ton
thought of her as a milk and water miss that only knew how to be pretty, entertain, and act as a hostess.
 
The only reason she had allowed the Duke of Hawkescliffe to escort her was that his mere presence intimidated Franklin and Lorraine.

She just did not trust those two.
 
Ever since her father had married Lorraine, even before, she had slowly begun to manipulate him.
 
She had successfully turned father and daughter against each other.
 
Clarissa also found it strange that no one had heard of Lorraine until shortly before she married Papa.
 
Lorraine claimed to be a widow of a country gentleman from the Lake District.
 
Clarissa had written several of her friends that resided in the Lake District asking about Lorraine, but none had heard of her.
   

Clarissa stumbled on a loose cobblestone but quickly caught herself.
 
After looking around to ascertain that no one had noticed her clumsiness, she continued on her way.
 
Servants bustled around her, not paying her any attention.
 
In the distance she saw the posting station.
 
Clarissa knew it would not be the best form of travel, but it would be the most economical and fastest.

She approached the station, looking around stealthily to make certain no one would recognize her. The plain clothes she wore were courtesy of one of Aunt Gertie’s maids.
 
She would have to repay the woman’s unknown kindness when she returned.
 
Clarissa walked up to the barred window.
 
A rotund man with a pudgy nose sat on the other side of the bars.
 
Poor man
, Clarissa thought,
it is almost as if he works in a prison.

“Can I help you, miss?” the man asked, a jovial note to his voice despite his surroundings.

“Yes, sir.
 
I need to purchase passage to Liverpool.”

“Liverpool?
 
That’s quite a distance for a woman to be traveling alone.”

“Yes, sir.
 
My father lives there and has become quite ill,” she lied.

“Poor thing.”
 
He quoted her a price, gave her a voucher, then informed her as to when the coach would be leaving.
 
“I hope your father is better when you arrive.”

“Thank you.
 
May I wait here until time to leave?”

“Certainly.”

Clarissa took up a seat on the bench next to the station.
 
She kept her head bent low, but continuously looked around her for any signs of recognition from those bustling around her.
 
Very rarely would a member of the
ton
be seen in this part of London, but she kept a watchful eye out just the same.
 
A street vendor hawked meat pies down the way.
 
Clarissa’s stomach growled noisily.
 
She left Gertie’s this morning without eating anything, nor did she eat much last night.
 
Now, she found herself starving as the smell wafted her way.

She stood and walked to the vendor.
 
Clarissa purchased a meat pie and ate it where she stood.
 
Her stomach satisfied, she passed the time waiting for the mail coach by watching the people on the street.
 
These were everyday laborers.
 
Although they worked their lives away, they seemed so much happier than most of the people she knew.
 
Yes, they went home exhausted at the end of the day, but they were not living their life on a stage, an act being constantly judged with no intermission.
 
Surely that made them happier than she.

The sound of clopping horses’ hooves echoed off the buildings that lined the street.
 
Clarissa picked up her bags and turned to the mail coach station, but came to an abrupt halt when she saw the crest on the door of the coach.
 
Her father’s coach!
 
She looked around quickly, searching for a hiding place.
 
The carriage swayed as a man with sandy blonde hair, a fair complexion, and dressed in the finest clothes stepped out onto the street.

“Franklin,” Clarissa whispered.
 
She watched in horror, frozen to the cobbles where she stood.
 
He approached the man she had just purchased her voucher from.
 
“Dear Lord,” she whispered softly.
 
Clarissa spun around, but could still see what happened behind her courtesy of the storefront window that she vacantly gazed into.
 
She watched as money passed hands, and the man nodded to the bench where she had been sitting.

Clarissa watched Franklin turn in a slow circle as he studied the area.
 
He started across the street, but a lumbering wagon halted his progress.
 
He continued on after it passed.
 
Clarissa’s heart pounded heavily in her chest.
 
She moved toward the opening of a dark alley.
 
The alley was certainly dangerous, but she much preferred facing the dangers that lurked there to her step-uncle.
 
She never should have gone back by the house to check if word had arrived overnight.
 
With so many new staff members hired by Lorraine, she could not be sure whom to trust.

She entered the darkness and put her bags down.
 
She peeked out of the opening, searching the street for him.
 
He was nowhere to be found.
 
The carriage still sat in front of the coaching station.
 
He couldn’t have just disappeared
, she thought frantically.
 
She heard the crunch of footsteps behind her.
 
Before she could turn around, a firm hand clamped over her mouth.

***

“Why would she hie off on her own like that?” Gertrude moaned softly and not for the first time.
 
Both she and Justin were looking frantically out the windows on each side of the carriage hoping for a glimpse of her.

“Because she thought I wouldn’t help her, and as is the case with most women, she acted without thinking.”

“Now Justin, I think that quite unfair of you,” Gertie complained never taking her eyes from passing scenery.
 
They had been searching for over half an hour for the elusive Clarissa.
 
One thing was certain, when she did not want to be found, she did a good job of it.
 

Justin opened the carriage window and called out to the driver, “Let’s try this street.”

“Aye, sir.”
 
The unmarked carriage turned slowly onto the busy thoroughfare.
 
People were bustling to and fro, making purchases for the larger houses in London.
 
Street vendors were crowding every available space to try to sell their wares.
 
A woman stumbled in the midst of a crowd, but caught herself before falling.
 
No one seemed to notice her, they were so busy with their own errands.

The carriage lumbered on down the street, and they passed the mail coach station, empty except for the ticket agent.
 
They traveled slowly both because of the people filling the streets and sidewalks and their meticulous search for Clarissa.
 
“Have you seen anything yet, Gertie?”

“Other than Clarissa, I really don’t know what I’m looking for.”
 

Justin leaned out the window once more and gave instructions for the driver to turn around when he came to a good spot and go down the street the other direction.
 
When they were able, the coachman turned down a side street and made several more turns before once again, coming out onto the main street.
 
“Look for anyone you might think is Clarissa.”

Silence permeated the coach.
 
He saw the same woman who had stumbled earlier.
 
Something about her looked familiar, but he could not quite put his finger on it.
 
She wore an old bonnet pulled low.
 
They passed by and Justin looked back once more, but she had disappeared.

“It’s Franklin,” Gertie gripped Justin’s forearm to get his attention.

“What?”

“Franklin,” Gertrude pointed her finger at the carriage across the street.

“Stop the coach,” he called to their driver.
 
“Gertie, I want you to stay in here, do you understand?”

“Of course.”

“We have to be ready to leave quickly.”

“I understand, and you’re wasting time.”
 

Justin slipped out of the coach and had a quick word with the driver.
 
“Point the man out to me.”

“He is at the mail coach station.”
 
Justin looked around the end of the coach and saw a blonde, fashionably dressed man talking with the booking agent.
 
He passed some notes to the man and then did a turn as he scanned the area.
 
Recognition gleamed in his eyes and across his face as he walked across the street.
 

Justin looked down the street and saw the woman he watched earlier slip into an alley.
 
He thought he recognized her, but the bonnet and servant’s clothes had thrown him off.
 
None of her silvery blonde hair showed from beneath the bonnet.
 
Justin watched as Franklin entered a shop, but never came back out.
 
He had just arrived at the alley entrance when he heard, “Come back here, you little bitch.”